Khushwant Singh's novel examines the communal violence in India in 1947 through the lens of a Punjab village of Muslims and Sikhs who had lived peaceably together for generations. The arrival of a "ghost train" full of corpses, and the instigation of a Muslim exodus, make it impossible for the villagers to remain isolated from the larger, terrible events around them. The novel's characters each reflect a facet of the conflict without becoming stock figures, and the ending is both shattering and deeply moving.
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